The night before, place raisins in bowl and cover with amaretto or apple-juice. Allow to sit overnight.

The day of preparation, in a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins.

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the pineapple. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts, if using. Pour evenly into cupcake pans, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cupcakes test done with a toothpick. Cool for ten minutes before removing from pans.

Heat a small pan over medium-high heat. Butter one side each of two slices of bread. Place one slice of bread in the pan. Top with 5 basil leaves, 1 oz sliced cheese, and 15 or so cherry tomatoes. It's okay if some of the tomatoes spill out, they can grill in the pan. Cover the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Turn heat down to medium. Flip, cover, and cook another minute or so. Remove from pan to cutting board, drizzle hot sandwich with small amount of balsamic vinegar (a little goes a long way here). Slice in half and serve. Repeat with second sandwich.

Fill, seal, and process jars in boiling water bath for 10 minutes, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Be sure to clean off jar rims before putting on lids.

Remove jars from water and allow to stand at room temperature 24 hours. To check seals, remove the bands and press down on the center of each lid. If the lid doesn't move, the jar is sealed. If the lid depresses and pops up again, the jar is not sealed and contents will need to be refrigerated right away. Store properly sealed jars in a cool, dark place up to 1 year. Refrigerate after opening.

You can buy them pre-wrapped in the supermarche, about the same quality as your average Ho Ho (okay, maybe a little better).

You can get them in a patisserie with lovingly caramelized sugar baked in.

It's something I've been wanting to re-create for a long time. But for a few years, try as I might, I just couldn't get waffles right.

They always came out...floppy.

Floppy waffles may occur naturally with aging, but I wasn't ready to give in to them just yet.

Anyway, long story short, the mighty Google has finally led me to this pearl (sugar) of a recipe.

The chocolate shell was my own creation.

The smiles on my kids' faces? I'm taking credit for that as well.

Chocolate Dipped Waffles
The recipe that saved me here was the Waffle of Insane Greatness. Where did it originate? Who created it? I don't know! You can find it on all the big food sites *now*, but I salute the chef who created it. And named it. That name is a winner.